Courtesy of Arrow Video Lucio Fulci’s classic zombie film City of the Living Dead comes to UK DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 24th May 2010 fully restored and uncut and complete with a host of unique and exclusive extras and featurettes specially commissioned for this release.

Among the many extras are a newly recorded audio commentary with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice, an introduction to the film by star Carlo De Mejo, ‘Carlo Of The Living Dead’, a 17-minute featurette in which De Mejo reflects upon his time working with the Italian master of splatter, Lucio Fulci, plus ‘Penning Some Paura’ in which the film’s screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti shares his recollections of writing an Italian horror classic.

The 50-minute ‘The Many Lives And Deaths Of Giovanni Lombaro Radice’ presents an extensive biography of the legendary screen victim, who guides viewers through the making of his most famous gut-crunching classics including ‘House On The Edge Of The Park’, ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’, ‘Cannibal Ferox’ and, of course, ‘City of the Living Dead’.

In addition to providing an alternative audio commentary to the main feature, legendary horror actress Catriona MacCall recalls playing the role of Mary in the film in ‘Dame Of The Dead’ and reflects upon the film 30 years on. Catriona also appears alongside Giovanni Lombardo Radice in a 20-minute retrospective Q&A session exclusively filmed live at the Glasgow Film Theatre following a recent special screening of the film.

Filmed in the Profondo Rosso shop in Rome, ‘Profondo Luigi: A Colleague’s Memories Of Lucio Fulci’ focuses on director Luigi Cozzi (Contamination; Starcrash; The Killer Must Kill Again) who talks about his own memories of Lucio Fulci and the Italian boom in zombie horror, while in ‘Fulci’s Daughter: Memories of the Italian Gore Maestro’, Antonella Fulci, the daughter of the legendary filmmaker, reflects upon ‘City Of The Living Dead’, the experience of visiting her father’s sets and about his enduring legacy.

Both the DVD and the Blu-ray releases of ‘City Of The Living Dead’ also come with four sleeve artwork options, double-sided poster, six postcards and a newly commissioned booklet, ‘Fulci Of The Living Dead’, written by Calum Waddell and featuring exclusive new interviews with Sergio Stivaletti (Wax Mask), Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Fulci and Ian McCulloch (Zombie) among others, providing an in depth career retrospective on the Grand Old Man of Italian Gore.

City of the Living Dead will be released on two-disc DVD (£17.99) and single-disc Blu-ray (£22.99). The full list of extras is as follows:

Newly recorded audio commentary by actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice

Audio commentary by actress Catriona MacColl and author Jay Slater

Introduction to the film by star Carlo De Mejo

‘Carlo Of The Living Dead featurette

‘The Many Lives And Deaths Of Giovanni Lombardo Radice’ featurette

‘Dame Of The Dead’ featurette

‘Fulci’s Daughter: Memories Of The Italian Gore Maestro’ featurette

‘Penning Some Paura’ featurette

‘Profondo Luigi: A Colleague’s Memories Of Lucio Fulci’ featurette

Catriona MacCall and Giovanni Lombardo Radice Q&A session at the Glasgow Film Theatre

8 comments:

Wow. I'm definitely on this one! The BU disc is supposed to have exclusive extras, too, I believe. Nothing quite like this, though. I recently interviewed Morghen and I asked him about MacColl and Chris George. He said he never met them and only just met MacColl at a recent convention. This must be the one on the disc, then.

Judging from recent Arrow discs, my guess is that their CotLD release will have the same transfer as the BU release. Because of the $25 price tag on the BU disc, I've held off on pre-ordering... now I'm very happy I have. The Arrow BD looks fucking amazing.